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Fears of n-race in West Asia

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In a move that has sparked fears of a nuclear race in West Asia, four Arab states have told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that they want to develop nuclear power for civilian purposes, according to its deputy director-general Tomihiro Taniguch. These are Eygpt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Algeria.

Disclosing this in an interview to the London-based Middle East Economic Digest, Mr Taniguch said the IAEA had already had "preliminary'' discussions with these Governments and would offer them technical help.

Mr Taniguch said: "Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interests to use nuclear power primarily for [water] desalination purposes...

"This [the interest] is at a tertiary stage and the main driver is the use of a more efficient energy system. We have held preliminary discussions with these Governments.

"We will offer them help under our technical advisory programme to conduct a study for the [proposed] power plants."

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